Flora-Fauna

Draba praecox Steven

(First published in Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 3: 269 (1812); Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2; 1969)

• Life-form & habit : Small annual therophyte, usually only a few centimetres tall; stems scapose, slender, erect to ascending, simple or few, arising from a basal rosette.

• Leaves : Leaves all or mostly basal, small, oblanceolate to spatulate, entire or slightly toothed, covered with simple and branched hairs; cauline leaves absent or very reduced.

• Inflorescence & flowers : Racemes short at anthesis, elongating slightly in fruit; flowers very small, white; petals 4, deeply bifid, giving the flower an 8-lobed appearance; sepals small, greenish.

• Fruit : Silicles elliptic to oblong, flattened, several-seeded, borne on slender pedicels; seeds minute, brownish.

• Phenology : Flowers in early spring.

• Habitat & elevation : Open dry ground, stony soils, thin grasslands, cultivated margins and disturbed places.

• Lebanese distribution : Recorded from Lebanon-Syria in Mouterde’s area; probably overlooked because of its very small size and early flowering.

• Native range : Albania, Algeria, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Cyprus, Denmark, East Aegean Is., France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, Netherlands, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe.

• Diagnostic remarks : Part of the critical Draba verna aggregate; recognised by its minute annual habit, basal rosette, leafless scapes, very small white deeply bifid petals and flattened silicles. Identification requires care because segregates of the D. verna group are morphologically close.